What if, we could drink water for a longer life?

William Atkins
Friday, 02 January 2009 21:07

Science - Health

The question of drinking water for a longer and healthier life has been suggested in the scientific community for many years. However, it's not regular water they are talking about, but heavy water (deuterated water) that’s the key to this research into a possible 'fountain of youth.'


Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen (chemically represented as H or ¹H, with a mass number of 1).

Called heavy hydrogen, deuterium naturally occurs in the oceans of the Earth, at a frequency of about 155 parts per million. Of all the naturally occurring hydrogen in the oceans, deuterium accounts for about 0.015% of it (and 0.030% by weight).

Deuterium is chemically represented with the symbol D (for deuterium) or as ²H (an isotope of hydrogen with mass number 2).

When deuterium forms a compound with oxygen is becomes deuterated water, represented by the chemical symbol D₂O, or heavy water. It is 10.6% denser than normal water (H₂O). It is so dense that an ice cube made with deuterium would sink in normal water.

A Russian biochemist has been looking into the possibility of using deuterium to extend the average human life, possibly by as much as ten years.

Mikhail Sergeevich Shchepinov, a research fellow of Moscow (M.M. Shemyakin-Yu.A. Ovchinnikov) Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (IBCH), who has performed research in Oxford University (England), contends that the body’s cells and tissues decay over time.

This decay is largely due to free radicals; that is, chemicals produced as the body converts foods into energy. Such free radicals are associated with incidences of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, to name just three.

Dr. Shchepinov says the deuterium can maintain stronger bonds within the human body. Read page two for more.